Cultural Studies: Joseph O'Rourke 2002.

ANALYSIS OF AN IMAGE
Photograph from the book 'Radical Eye: the photography of Miron Zowner' (1997)


The image I have chosen to analyse is an art print taken from a book of photographs by the photographer Miron Zowner (1953 -) I will use the principles of semiotics and other cultural study theories to interpret the meaning of the picture.

The picture is a black and white photograph measuring 16.5cm by 23cm, showing two people, a man and a woman, both Caucasian.  They are embracing each other, and stand up in centre frame taking up an equal space in the picture, side on to the viewer.  Their arms are wrapped around each others shoulders.  Their faces are obscured, the man's completely by the woman's head and the woman's partially by his shoulder.  The man is wearing a black leather jacket that comes down to his waist.  The jacket has zips and straps and some illegible writing can be seen on the back.  His sleeves are pulled up revealing his forearm and a wide studded wrist band in his right arm.  He also has a black glove on his right hand.  Apart from the jacket and glove he is naked.

The woman is also naked except for a long black glove with ripped lace fingers on her left hand and the suggestion of something black around her neck.  There is also a strap of what looks like white leather hanging from the inside of her arm over the left side of her belly and abdomen.   From the little we can see of her face, she has some very heavy dark eye makeup, with two thick lines around her eye and eyebrows stretching to her hairline.

They both have short, dark hair.   The woman has a pointed haircut, brushed up to a slight mohican with blonde tips.   The background is the corner of two white walls covered in graffiti written in black marker pen.  The only word that can be read is 'punk' just above the woman's head.

The only caption on the page apart from the page number is "Berlin: 1980".  This gives us a place and time reference for the picture.  The couples' mode of dress is from this time.   In its framing, with the two people centre and close up, we see them head on from the top of their legs upwards.  This gives a sense of proximity - of actually being there.  This personalises the picture, making us stand there with them.  The black and white print gives it a more "real" or documentary look, while at the same time emphasising the texture and contours of their skin.  This, along with their unashamed nudity, adds to the impression of intimacy with the viewer.  The image could be seen as intrusive, if not for the fact that the couple are paying no attention what-so-ever to the photographer or us as voyeurs.

Taken out of context from the rest of the book the photograph would appear to be set up.   The sheer absurdity of the situation - two naked people standing where they are - suggests an art print, carefully designed and intended to convey a message.  In context however, its implication is quite different.  The image is part of a collection that makes up the text of the book as a whole and should be viewed as such.   With this in mind it could be regarded as much a journalistic photo as artistic print and, as in all the best photo journalism, it presents a moment that has been captured and not created.

There are three important elements that must be taken into account to understand the image.   The first is who the couple is - which gives us narrative and motive.  This can be revealed through a purely semiological analysis: the way they look, their surroundings, the reason they are they there.  This can then be interpreted with the help of psychoanalytic techniques.

The two figures convey - with their clothes, hair and make up - a very clear message about who or what they are.  It is easy to assert that they are punks because the punk ethos was, by its very nature, deeply semiotic in a desire to stand out.  This is best achieved through the use or subversion of symbols and punk in many ways was the epitome of this.  What punks sought was to look as individual and different as possible.  In doing so they created a uniform of non-conformity. The zips, straps studded leather and ripped clothing are all now instantly recognised as denotations of punk.  The black leather jacket in the inage, while not originating from punk fashion, has, through the writing on the back, acquired definite punk overtones.  The ripped gloves are another major sign used to signify the lack of care for self-image that punks ironically displayed.

I believe this knowledge provides background context that I can bring to the picture, helping to apply a 'narrative' to the image and giving me some idea of the way of life and attitude of the two characters.  Punk, rightly or wrongly, came to signify nihilism and ultimately self-destruction.  It was about celebrating the pointlessness of life and a complete denial of the sacred, the antithesis of the supposed spirituality that came before it in the hippy movement.  In a way it could be seen as fanatical agnosticism: if there is no God then there is no good or bad, no right or wrong.  Morality is what you make of it and then you die.  Not a comforting philosophy by any means, but one which goes someway to explaining the motive of this couple, being where they are and doing what they are doing.  As punks they see there is nothing left in life other than extreme sensation.

The backdrop and location can be ascertained from the white walls covered in uncomplicated black graffiti.  Simple scribbles, jokes or sexual messages can be found in toilet cubicles the world over.  This is further implied by the style of the walls themselves and a previous picture in the book, of the couple taken from above, which more clearly shows the location as a public toilet. Connected with the dirtiest part of the human life cycle then, toilets, no matter how white and hygienic they may appear, are linked with human waste.  In particular the public toilet has associations of cold, damp, unclean and far from ideas of love and privacy.

This contrast, the exposed nudity set against the cold hard bricks wet with who-knows-what, creates an important dynamic in the picture, and bringing a lot of tension to the image.  This, along with the aforementioned realistic texture of their skin, adds to the visceral experience of looking at the picture.

The third and most important part of the text is their nudity.  The black and white print shows the texture and form of their skin better than a full colour photo could.   We can see marks where tight clothes have indented the skin, demonstrating their softness and vulnerability.  Their physiques are very traditional.  The woman's wide and voluptuous hips are more like something from a renaissance oil painting than modern day fashion photography.  On a more psychological note, the image has connotations of the expulsion from Eden and looks a lot like classical paintings of the same subject.  Adam and Eve hold each other for protection, afraid and sorrowful in their parting from the Garden of Divine Innocence.  If you take into account the previous picture (mentioned above), in which the couple can quite clearly be seen enjoying sexual intercourse, the metaphor of the expulsion from Eden has further relevance.  You could say that this photo was taken after they had been expelled from a beautiful place (the pleasure they were experiencing) and have finally realised where they are: this harsh and disgusting world.

We can see that these people are embracing in a tender way, clashing with the stereotype of the punk who is only interested in the physical.  The position of their bodies and the look on the woman's face expresses a deep need, an affection for each other that more than any thing in this picture transgresses the norm.  But the idea of making love in a public toilet is one normally associated with quick, casual, anonymous sex, a grubby degradation. Compared to the images in the rest of book, though, this is pretty innocuous. The love these people have looks very out of place in this environment; it is the only picture in the whole book that portrays love and because of this it stands out like an island of hope in a sea of despair.

On a deeper level, what the image seems to depict is fear of mortality.  The couple huddle together, trying to put off the unavoidable parting, gripping the last drops of warmth that their union provided, holding on desperately to the moment, trying to put off the inevitable.  What it shows is that, though we as humans may lower ourselves to a level described in the rest of the book and are surrounded by anguish and insanity in a world of filth, love can and does still appear.

Joseph O'Rourke 2001